For a long time, no sport has managed to break the hegemony of football, hockey and basketball as the most popular sports. But in recent years, the situation has changed dramatically and, according to several authoritative publications, the top spot now belongs to eSports.
Virtual sports are not only distinguished by entertainment, but also by the rapid growth in the number of professional players and spectator audiences, as confirmed by the many tournaments on play-score.com. There are already active discussions aimed at including this sport in the Olympic Games program and it is safe to say that this will happen in the near future.
How sport has made a breakthrough
There are many reasons that directly or indirectly affect the popularity of this young but very promising sport https://ro.slotsup.com/casino-bonus/rotiri-gratuite. According to experts, this phenomenon is associated with such issues:
- Availability
- The role of the media
- Investment component
Nowadays, e-sports are available to almost everyone, regardless of gender, age and physical condition. To succeed, you need to know the basic rules and persevere in achieving your goal. And there will certainly be a chance to prove your worth.
Developing any sport involves an investment component. In this regard, eSports has no problems. On the contrary, every year the number of those willing to invest in this direction is growing, and we are not just talking about some private investors, but also large corporations.
The impact of eSports on health
From time to time one can hear various opinions that eSports has a certain negative impact on athletes, especially children, and teenagers. But experts have found no confirmation of such claims. On the contrary, studies have shown that during the game the heart rate is within normal limits.
What’s more, e-sports athletes have better reactions and make quicker decisions. Research in this area is ongoing, but at this stage there is no cause for concern. The main thing is to exercise regularly and perform special eye exercises.
Communication
In team disciplines, the problem of effective communication is the most acute, as many players join teams because of their purely individual skills and are unable to integrate them into the team process on their own. The relatively poor communication skills of players are a hallmark of e-sports. This is due to both personal factors (players often appear as heightened personalities, and in some cases borderline conditions and disorders can be diagnosed) and social and environmental factors.
Discipline and motivation
Another distinctive feature of e-sports is the relatively poor discipline of players, associated, among other things, with the youthfulness of both the e-sports players themselves and the industry as a whole. So far, there are no attempts to systematize gaming activities as a separate sport, with strict periodization of workloads, formed by diet, basic fitness requirements, etc. This is reflected in the behavior of the players: non-observance (or even absence) of the regime, violation of subordination and intra-organizational arrangements.
Mental skills
The final component of the psychological support of an esports organization is pedagogical or training work. It is worth noting that the foreign model of mental skills) is consistent with the semantic domain of e-sports, where experienced players are traditionally referred to as ‘skilled’.
The universal and narrow impact of video games
Different genres in e-sports have specific mental health effects:
- strategies improve cognitive skills, reduce severity of dyslexia symptoms – reading difficulties;
- shooters and online games facilitate socialization, help overcome feelings of loneliness in case of social phobia;
- puzzles prevent depressive episodes and increase motivation.
In general, playing sports, whatever the discipline, eliminates mood swings, reduces anxiety and optimizes the emotional background. At the same time, sports therapy is easier and cheaper than long-term psychotherapy courses or visits to a psychologist.
Conclusion
Esports, as a phenomenon born at the intersection of the gaming and sports industries, is growing rapidly, attracting more and more players and spectators. There are now discussions about including esports disciplines in the Olympic Games program, and at the Asian Games in 2018 and 2023, esports are included in the official program.